John Stainer

As an excellent organist and teacher Stainer came to be the organist at St. Paul's Cathedral in Tenbury and a Professor of music at Oxford. The majority of his compositions were self-admittedly amateurish at best though his anthems and other music for the church service are still used. Noteworthy compositions by Stainer include "The Crucifixion" and a "Sevenfold Amen." While at St. Paul's Stainer helped to reform the musical part of the service and the positions of persons in the choir. With assistance from predecessors who had also advocated some of these ideas, Stainer increased the salary of the choir and brought about weekly communion services, rehearsals and processions, and extended the repertoire of the choir. Apart from duties at the cathedral, Stainer also founded the Musical Association in 1874 with the help of Ousley and thereafter also became the organist and the principal of the National Training School for Musicians. The greatest part of Stainer's legacy is found in his musicological studies and his own process of collecting. His important endeavors yielded studies in "Early Bodleian Music," an edition of Christmas carols, and his personal collection of eighteenth century songbooks.
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